The Descent of Man

trick, and practised it ever afterwards, whenever
there was an opportunity.
The parents of many animals, trusting to the
principle of imitation in their young, and more
especially to their instinctive or inherited tendencies,
may be said to educate them. We see
this when a cat brings a live mouse to her kittens;
and Dureau de la Malle has given a curious
account (in the paper above quoted) of his
observations on hawks which taught their
young dexterity, as well as judgment of distances,
by first dropping through the air dead
mice and sparrows, which the young generally
failed to catch, and then bringing them live
birds and letting them loose.
Hardly any faculty is more important for the
intellectual progress of man than ATTENTION.
Animals clearly manifest this power, as when a
cat watches by a hole and prepares to spring on
its prey. Wild animals sometimes become so
absorbed when thus engaged, that they may be